Boxwood has been known as a great
turning and carving wood for hundreds of years. It has an incredibly
fine grain and is an excellent wood for woodturning and even ornamental
turning, as it accepts fine details like few woods are capable of.
It is expensive owing to scarcity of good material, and the very long time
it takes to grow to a usuable size (at least 90 years minimum). There are many types of boxwood but sempervirens is the type sold on the world market. Musical instruments have been made from this wood for
hundreds of years, and many survive to this day. Note that the wood
is often uniform in color but can have many lines (such as the dark line
seen above) which some people find quite decorative. Most pieces
or logs will have at least some lines in them, and some of them have densely
packed lines. All logs have some cracks, which always form in all
but tiny logs during the drying process. Call us with questions if
the pictures do not make clear the piece you are considering.
Specific gravity is around .90 or more , with some variance among logs. Note that when we say "air dried" or "kiln-dried" we mean that the wood has been properly checked with a corrected moisture meter and is known to have less than 12% moisture. 12% moisture is what used to qualify as a kiln-dried piece of wood in the past. Unfortunately, many vendors have started using
using up to 18% moisture (which is unstable) to count as kiln-dried and completely wet wood to count as air dried. We don't make claims of "air dried" or "kiln-dried" unless we know the actual moisture and it is genuinely under 12%. Pen blanks are always air dried.New Grading system:IQ: Instrument quality.
Almost perfect. Only necessary for certain projects.
Very hard to acquire.IQ2: 2nd instrument quality:
Has a very tiny imperfection here or there that would not matter for most projects.Turning Grade: A basically
good piece that has a small knot or two. Knots may have a tiny check
in them.Note that any of the pieces may have an edge
or two that is rounded so long as the size when turned on the lathe is
not affected.

Actual pieces for sale shown, order by number below.Dried completely. Notes: These all came from France, carefully graded and marked on each piece. Some have slightly rounded corners. VERY labor intensive to make these for the amount produced. Sold just above actual cost this time (no including labor). We are looking for feedback from you. We could get the Turkish boxwood for slightly lower prices, or charge a bit more for the French then we now do. Which would you prefer?: Email us and let us know. Pieces not shown below are sold.

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